Notes on EDC team meetings (Sabo)
Notes on EDC Team Meetings and Agenda
Dave Sabo
The purpose of the EDC agenda and “meeting notes” is to insure the team meetings are efficient and effective use of time and to provide a systematic way of recording meeting results. The format of the EDC agenda models the best practices on meeting organization found in industry. Here are a few details to remember about the organization of EDC meetings:
Quality Meetings
-Quality meetings always start on time at the agreed time. If you are going to be absent or late, let the meeting leader know.
-Quality meetings adhere to the agenda (topic and time) unless the meeting leader deems otherwise, usually with the concurrence of the meeting participants.
Roles of Meeting Leader, Scribe, and Timekeeper
-The role of the meeting leader is to:
- set the agenda,
- write and store a written agenda on Depot 24 hours before the meeting to allow for preparation time for attendees, and
- control the order of the meeting.
-The role of meeting scribe is to record the meeting results, particularly the action items. The three-part carbonless paper for the “meeting notes” provides the format for this information. Formal detailed minutes of the meeting are not necessary. Key decisions and issues, in addition to action items (See below.) are recorded succinctly. The scribe should issue the meeting notes immediately following the meeting.
-The role of the timekeeper is to keep the meeting leader aware of the time when the allotted time for an agenda topic is exceeded and the discussion of this agenda topic is not completed. At that time, the meeting leader, with the concurrence, of the participants, decides either to continue the discussion and thus modify the agenda, or to table the discussion and continue with the original agenda.
Important Agenda Topics and Action Items
-Each meeting should start with a safety agenda item:
1. The team’s safety in all aspects of the project, (For example the construction of your mockups and proper use of shop and its tools),
2. The safety of the users’ of your designed product and,
3. The safety of the manufacturing process and workers in the manufacturing plant.
-The team should assume that the instructors (supervisors) and team members have read the progress report. Thus, the meeting should concentrate synthesis of the current design, issues, problems or questions.
-The meeting agenda should not be padded with additional non-essential topics to stretch the meeting to the allotted twenty-minute time slot. “Less is more.”
-Action items are activities, determined during the meeting, which need to be completed by the team or the instructors. Each action item includes a date for completion as well as who is responsible for completing the action item. Action items should include neither the homework assignments nor the project process checklist listed in the syllabus but augment them.
-The last agenda topic for all meetings is a review of the action items by the meeting scribe so that all attendees understand and concur. The first agenda topic for all meetings should be a brief review of the status of action items from the last meeting.
Role of Instructors
-The purpose of the team meetings, held during the class time where the supervisors (instructors) are present, is to report on the team’s progress. The instructors are participants; they listen and ask questions just as other members do. The meeting is organized and directed by the team members.
Team Meetings without Instructors
-This format for the EDC meeting agenda and meeting notes can also be used for any team meeting where the instructors are not present as their use will insure that your meetings are efficient use of your valuable time.
Documentation
A hard copy of meeting agenda and meeting notes should be filed in the team project notebook.
